by SK Chua

As a true blue Malaysian born and bred here all my 55 years, I have no doubt that this is the country for me and for my kids.

I was 17 years old and in the hometown of Pontian, Johor when the May 13 incident happened. Our parents’ only concern at that time was my elder brother’s safety in Ceras at the Technical Teachers’ Training College (fondly known as T3C).

Back then there was no email and our parents had to wait for him to call back the next day to tell us he was safe. He told us there was no problem at all at the dormitory and that all students, Malays, Indian and Chinese were like a family to one another and he could not assure us enough that whatever was happening out there was not going to affect their closeness under the same roof.

We believed him. Even in Pontian, we had neighbours and friends of different race and faith living next to each other but we never looked at one another as adversary.

Such spirit of co-existing as one citizen of the land existed back then. And I am convinced that it still exists today.

It is the politicians and the Umnoputras who are undermining these strong fundamentals which we, the Raykat have striven so hard to achieve after so many years.

It is the greedy politician who, after having tasted the sweetness of “success” and material enrichments that they are prepared to undermine the peace and the understanding among the races, to achieve their goal and wealth accumulation.

I was from the service industry. I had Malay partners and staff. Everyone worked hard to ensure the company remained profitable.

Then the politicians got greedy. They “robbed” us all of our income. They started imposing draconian rules that made it difficult or impossible for us to carry on.

We had to stop the partnership and go separate ways. But we remained as friends even till this day. We visited each other during Hari Raya or Lunar New Year, we attended our children’s wedding, we comforted each other during bereavement. We never forget that we are all colleagues and most of all, Malaysians.

These so called Yang Berhormats are the cause of all the renewed hatred among the races.

They might not be able to influence us, the older generation, but they are affecting the mindset of the young ones.

Unable to comprehend the old situation, our youths are hating one another due to the slanted reporting by the mainstream media. They look at one another with suspicion now. They regard the opposing race a threat to their well being.

It is the “Raykat” who have made Bangsa Malaysia a reality, not any of these hotshot politicians. They could continue to plunder the country and there’s nothing much the “Raykat” could do about it. But they must STOP this sowing of the seeds of hatred among us because in no time, there won’t be anything to plunder from!

(SK Chua penned the above in response to Dr. Azmi Sharom’s column in The Star, as follows:)

Of silly rules and a Bung-ling jester
BRAVE NEW WORLD
By AZMI SHAROM

It would be nice to take politicians down a peg or two every now and then to remind them that they are where they are because of us.

LIFE, as M. Nasir once sang, is like a rollercoaster. You have your ups and you have your downs. Sometimes you cry and sometimes you laugh like a loon. Just ask Sheffield United and West Ham United supporters. The past couple of weeks have been a little like that.

Maybank’s instructions that all the law firms working for them must have a bumiputra component in their make-up made me pretty annoyed.

Yes, it is fundamentally unfair to the lawyers who happen to be born non-Malay; yes, it is doubtful that they have the authority to make such a request; but what really irritated me is that this is the very sort of thing that undermines affirmative action.

Affirmative action is meant to give a leg up to those who need it. No one can deny that thirty years ago there were very few Malay lawyers around. The NEP has done a lot to fix that. We can debate the rightness of the NEP some other time.

My point is that there are plenty of Malay lawyers now, and many of them got to where they are because they got government scholarships to go abroad or they were let into local universities under the quota system.

Bung: Had incurred the wrath of women’s groups by making an off-colour ‘joke’ about a fellow MP’s menstrual cycle
What Maybank tried to do is in fact saying that despite all the help that these men and women obtained, they still need help now. This is exactly the sort of thing that makes people mad. Just how much of a leg up does one need?

You are already qualified lawyers, for goodness’ sake. Act like one. Work hard and go out there and prove that you are just as good as any other lawyer.

It is true that Maybank made a hasty withdrawal from their position because of the public outcry (which goes to show that public outcries do work).

But the damage has been done.

This episode has shown that a major Malaysian institution was set on having a race-based affirmative action policy in a situation where it is totally uncalled for.

This does not bode well for us either in terms of race relations, or for the economic well-being of the country.

When are they ever going to understand that without a merit-based system as a genuine aspiration we will all suffer, because when the best are not doing the best work, we get nothing but mediocrity.

But life is about balance, and before the froth started to drip on my T-shirt something really amusing happened.

Now, a lot has been written about the MPs who think that making jokes about a fellow parliamentarian’s menstrual cycle is the height of Dewan Rakyat wit. Those pieces have been very, very angry. That is perfectly understandable.

I, on the other hand, think that what Bung (oh, how apt a name) did — although not what he said — was great.

All right, before I get furious e-mails from women (and sensitive men in touch with their feminine side), please let me explain myself. I am one of those people who think that politicians are given far too much respect.

After all, they are only where they are because of us. It would be nice therefore to take them down a peg or two every now and then to remind them of this fact.

This would normally be the job of satirists and the like and could take the form of the written word or stand-up comedy or even television puppet shows. Unfortunately, we don’t have very much of that in these parts.

In Shakespearean plays, the fool plays an important role. As he frolics and clowns around, underneath the silliness he is actually the voice of reason.

By virtue of his being seen as merely a joker, he gets away with saying truths that others may not dare to. In this way, the King’s shortcomings are oft exposed and he is shown to be a fool himself.

We don’t have many people who can play the Shakespearean fool in Malaysia, someone who can show up those in power. But with clowns like Bung in our Parliament, we don’t really need to, as they are more than capable of being fools themselves.

And what wonderful comedic support he has, too.

When one of their fellows said a totally despicable thing and then gets off scot-free, many cheered. Oh, how they cheered.

Hurrah, one of us has made a “joke” that we would be ashamed to make in front of our mothers, but never mind, he got let off. Hip, hip, hurrah!

Or what about the woman MP who defended this jester Bung? I simply must remember my best period joke to tell her if we were ever to meet. I am sure she will find it humorous and in the best possible taste.

Indeed, Bung the fool has plenty of supporting players to make that comedy stage we call our Parliament a truly funny place indeed.

How I laughed. And I think I can hear the world laughing along with me.

Dr Azmi Sharom is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya.